Hansje, a ten-year-old boy, is home alone because his parents have to work during Christmas. His mother is an actress in a Christmas play and his father is a conductor of a Christmas concert. Hansje himself has a bad cold and spends the day making drawings until he discovers a small Christmas angel in the Christmas tree. The angel is looking for Pleasure on earth. To explain what Pleasure is, the Christmas angel takes Hansje with him, floating through the air, in the drawings that Hansje made of his hometown. They visit the Christmas play where his mother will perform, his school friend Geesje, a girl whose rabbit will be on the Christmas menu and some girls who go on a holiday to escape the cold. They also see old Mr. Biggelaar, who walks lonely through the city.